


TC9527

by YuMing



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, NOT mama powers compliant, Non-Linear Narrative, Temporary Character Death, bbh is careful s., heavily inspired by a chinese cartoon I used to watch as a kid, jongdae is kalo, kind of, should I tag MCD???, that actually was rlly sad and emotional at parts, 开心超人
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2020-10-05 02:12:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20481161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YuMing/pseuds/YuMing
Summary: “Baekhyun?”He turns wildly and Jongdae is there, sitting comfortably at his side as blue fireflies dance around them. His lips curl up in a grin. “Nightmare?”Baekhyun slumps, feeling the terror and tension melt away into relief. “Yeah, that you died. It’s okay. It was just a dream.”Jongdae smiles sadly. “Baekhyun, that wasn’t a dream.” His body begins to dissolve into blue light, blue, blue, blue. “That was real.”“Jongdae?” Baekhyun jumps up, begging, he can’t lose him again. “Jongdae!” He throws himself forward, ready to pull him back, anything for just a few more moments, but it’s too late, and Jongdae disappears once again through his outstretched hand, blue floating away into the sky.And Baekhyun wakes again, this time into a nightmare, where he sits up and turns his head and Jongdae isn’t there beside him, no curly grin, no blue. Only a lone framed picture of them balanced on his nightstand and the visor that doesn’t belong to him inside the lone drawer.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I recently stumbled upon the new seasons of this chinese cartoon I used to watch as a kid and decided to watch a few episodes. It's surprisingly still entertaining (or maybe it's just the nostalgia). also I very quickly realized that my two favorite characters, careful s. and kalo, were hella gay for each other so here I am,,,,, writing about baekchen in the roles of cartoon characters,,,,,,, kek
> 
> their abilities/superpowers are taken from the cartoon which means they're NOT mama consistent - baekhyun is a defender of his planet and can "blink" (teleport short distances) and shoot lasers, while jongdae is an energy being who can summon/morph his body into swords, cannons, tools, etc., can fly.
> 
> btw this is unbetaed so idk how coherent the plot will be, there will be a summary at end notes but yea I guess just make sure to notice when it changes to past tense hhsfjgdf
> 
> here's a picture of the two characters! kalo on the left, careful s. on the right:  
[ https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EDTbVRwX4AAC3Mv?format=jpg&name=small](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EDTbVRwX4AAC3Mv?format=jpg&name=small)

A blue comet jetting into the air, ignoring his outstretched hand, a hand crushing a life, explosion, blue, people looking up in wonder as blue shards of light drift slowly down, no, _ that can’t be right_, hands shaking as they clutch visor glasses that doesn’t belong to him, blue, blue, _ blue_…!

Baekhyun sits up with a gasp, clutches at his head.

“Baekhyun?”

He turns wildly and Jongdae is there, sitting comfortably at his side as blue fireflies dance around them. His lips curl up in a grin. “Nightmare?”

Baekhyun slumps, feeling the terror and tension melt away into relief. "Yeah, that you died. It’s okay. It was just a dream.”

Jongdae smiles sadly. “Baekhyun, that wasn’t a dream.” His body begins to dissolve into blue light, blue, blue,_ blue_. “That was real.”

“Jongdae?” Baekhyun jumps up, begging, _ he can’t lose him again_. “_Jongdae _!” He throws himself forward, ready to pull him back, anything for just a few more moments, but it’s too late, and Jongdae disappears once again through his outstretched hand, blue floating away into the sky.

And Baekhyun wakes again, this time into a nightmare, where he sits up and turns his head and Jongdae isn’t there beside him, no curly grin, no blue. Only a lone framed picture of them balanced on his nightstand and the visor that doesn’t belong to him inside the lone drawer.

He waits at the edge of the bed for a while, deliberating, before finally opening up the drawer and gently taking the visor. Gingerly, he rubs at the surface, brushing off the dust.

There, at the center of the visor, is a little play button. Baekhyun frowns, rubs the visor again, then rubs at his eyes. With a hesitant finger, he presses the button.

Suddenly, Jongdae is _ there_, right in front of him, bathed in blue light. “Hey, Baekhyun,” he says, and there’s the familiar grin. “How have you been?”

“Jong-”

“If you’re viewing this hologram right now, it means I’m not with you anymore,” Jongdae continues, cutting him off. _ Hologram _ . Now he notices how much younger and fuller Jongdae looks, with his visor still in place above his eyes. _ How long ago was this filmed? _ “Sorry, Baekhyun.”

“I’ve known for a long time that I’d die early. I’ve been overusing my energy for years now.” _ To protect a planet that isn’t even his_. Of course, Jongdae had told him before that the beings of planet Adeli are made of energy, and that they burn it to stay alive. But Jongdae had never mentioned that they could burn too much at one time, which apparently he’d been doing to fight for _ him_, to defend planet Starr.

“I don’t fear death,” he continues with a wry smile. “I’m more worried about your reaction.”

“Fuck you,” Baekhyun spits at the hologram. His eyes are blurry and wet. “You knew you would die young and you didn’t tell me? Why did you burn so much? You didn’t need to do it, I could have done it, there could’ve been another way, I...”

Inside, though, he knows that he and other Starr defenders were incapitated by the Slashe invaders’ poison, and that only Jongdae was able to fly up into the hole in Starr’s atmospheric shield and destroy the Slashe fleet before more of their ships landed.

“I’m a soldier. My job is to protect.” Jongdae’s voice is soft. “Promise me, Baekhyun. Continue to protect Starr.”

Baekhyun angrily wipes at his tears and shuts off the hologram, dropping the visor back into the drawer and slamming it closed.

\---

When they first met, Jongdae was trying to kill him, a rage of tied-up electric-blue hair and cropped silver jackets. Ships from planet Dust - a rival of Starr - had saved him, picked him up from the wreckage of Adeli when it was destroyed, forcing him to do the Dust commander’s bidding in order to repay the debt he owed for his life. Killing Baekhyun was meant to be his final mission, and then he would be free.

He possessed and turned machines into mechanical monsters at one of the city centers, causing enough chaos to draw Baekhyun’s attention, but waved them off when they surrounded Baekhyun, saying something about honor in fighting one-on-one. Baekhyun had scoffed, blinking up onto a roof and firing a laser to shut him up.

At some point, Jongdae had somehow summoned a huge drill into his hand. Baekhyun just barely dodged his lightning-fast charge with the activated drill when he looked back, feeling his stomach drop - there was a little girl in front of Jongdae, and there was no way he would be able to get to her in time. Instead of shredding her, though, Jongdae forced the drill into the ground a meter before her, the momentum throwing him up and through the side of a building. Baekhyun blinked in front of him, a palm up and a laser ready to be fired, but Jongdae, bruised and bloody, just stared up at him with defiance.

Baekhyun lowered his palm. “There’s no honor in fighting you now,” he said, somewhat mockingly (later, Jongdae would whine about Baekhyun’s teasing, insisting honor _ was _ important. “I didn’t become an admiral on Adeli by cheating,” he’d say disdainfully). “You’re injured.” He blinked away, allowing Jongdae, confused, to escape.

The second time they fought was shorter. This time, Jongdae summoned energy cannons to deflect Baekhyun’s lasers. Midway through, Jongdae suddenly jetted past him, without even trying to dodge or block the laser Baekhyun sent at his head. He followed to find Jongdae somehow holding up the foundation of an entire fucking building with one hand, cradling a baby in the other, begging him to take it and run. Once the baby and Baekhyun were clear, the building crashed down on top of him.

Immediately, Baekhyun gave the baby to a terrified police officer and began clearing away the rubble. He scooped up Jongdae’s unconscious body, so torn up that he could see the blue energy crackling underneath his skin. Lowering his head, he transferred some of his own energy into Jongdae, healing his wounds.

Jongdae’s eyes slid open, darting down to look at himself before searching his face for an explanation. “You used your own energy to help me.”

Baekhyun laid him down on the ground. “You can leave now.”

“Why did you heal me? Why are you letting me go?”

“You’re not a bad person.”

As Baekhyun walked away, he noticed a strange medal, scooping it up and pocketing it.

The third and final time was in a peculiar cave that Baekhyun suspected was man-made, lava bubbling underneath them. Jongdae cut off Baekhyun from the cave entrance before breaking the floor from underneath him, plunging him towards the molten rock. Baekhyun was blinking his way back up to the cave entrance when an unexpected explosion threw Jongdae past him, back towards the lava.

Baekhyun leaped down and caught him, grabbing his hand and blinking them onto the surface of a sinking boulder. He threw Jongdae up onto a ledge near the entrance with strength he didn’t know he had, but then he was stuck on a melting boulder, frantically looking for a safe spot within his blinking range and failing.

A flash of blue light, and something was locking around his arms. Jongdae had turned into some sort of weird disk with strange grabbers (Baekhyun would ask about that eventually, laughing uncontrollably as Jongdae’s face turned bright red. “I was exhausted and in pain, okay?” he protested, whacking at Baekhyun’s knee. “Don’t judge me!”), lifting him off the rock and setting him down on the ledge.

A wall began slamming down in front of the cave entrance as the lava started rising at an alarming rate - were there hidden Dust soldiers on Starr? Did they make this cave? - and Baekhyun flung disk-Jongdae like a frisbee, barely clearing the closing gap between the wall and the ground, before running towards the entrance himself, hopelessly watching the gap narrow.

As the wall slammed down, a drill burst through the rock behind Baekhyun. A hand extended through the opening, pulling Baekhyun out of the cave as molten rock, quickly cooling now that the cave was empty, filled the space he had been seconds before.

Baekhyun and Jongdae collapsed onto the grass, gasping for breath in a strange yet comfortable silence. As the sun set, Baekhyun got to his feet. “You should go home now,” he told Jongdae.

Jongdae looked up at him from the ground, empty. “I have no home,” he whispered, voice hollow. “Adeli - my planet - was destroyed. All my friends and family are dead.”

Baekhyun searched his pockets and pulled out the medal. “Is this yours?”

Jongdae’s eyes widened as stood up. “My medal!”

Stepping forward, Baekhyun attacked the medal onto his dusty and singed jacket. “This will forever be your glory,” he said softly, brushing at the silver fabric. Jongdae stared at the medal and then back at Baekhyun, eyes brimming with emotion, lost in some memory of the past.

“Jongdae,” Baekhyun started awkwardly, avoiding his gaze. “Would you consider staying on Starr?”

Jongdae blinked, suddenly jolted out of his trance. After a few moments of silence, he allowed a slight smile to curve his lips. His body straightened, his visor snapped down, leaving leaving only a blue glow in place of his eyes, and his arm came up in the traditional salute of the Adeli, forearm held parallel to and in front of his shoulders.

“Planet Adeli, admiral, number TC9527, Jongdae, ready for command,” he declared proudly, reciting the formal greeting of the Adeli military. “I will fight with glory to defend Starr!”

\---

Baekhyun spends the evening sitting at a bench in front of Jongdae’s statue at the city center. Children run up to it, chattering about how Jongdae’s their hero, how cool Jongdae was, how they want to be like Jongdae when they grow up. Baekhyun’s hands dig into the wood of the bench, a familiar cold anger rising. Sometimes he feels like only he knows that Jongdae was more than just a hero, more than just his sacrifice. He was friendship, he was comfort, he was unfailingly dependable and unwaveringly loyal, he softened Baekhyun’s edges and made the world just a little bit more open, and maybe Baekhyun wanted to be more than friends but he never got to tell him, and now he never will.

At some point, it had started raining, and Baekhyun’s vest is soaked through, the high collar drooping. He lowers his head to that nobody will be able to tell he’s crying, hot tears mixing with cool water, hands restlessly tugging at long black gloves.

“Excuse me? Are you Baekhyun?” A hesitant voice rips him away from his thoughts. 

“What do you want?” Baekhyun, head still bowed, forces his hands still.

“Jongdae wanted me to tell you that he’s still alive.”

Baekhyun looks up sharply, taking in the short blonde, worrying at his lip and shivering in the downpour, standing a few feet away. “What’s your name?”

“Junmyeon.”

“Well, _ Junmyeon_,” Baekhyun enunciates the name like a weapon. “Jongdae’s dead. He’s been dead for a year now.”

“Heroes don’t die that easily,” Junmyeon says, refusing to meet his eyes but mouth set in a determined line. “He’s alive, and he’s right here!” He throws his arm to the side, towards Jongdae’s statue, before panicking. “I mean, wait -”

Baekhyun laughs derisively, getting to his feet. “Oh, yeah, just because he was such a great hero he can conquer death itself! He blew himself up to destroy those Slashe ships but he’s still alive, somehow!” He laughs again, this time maybe a little hysterically, stepping forward and flinging water droplets everywhere. “You and everyone else can continue worshipping him and his sacrifice, but he’s _ dead_. Get that through your head. He’s dead! He’s not coming back! He’s -” Baekhyun cuts himself off, sucks in a few agonized breaths, blinks away towards the defenders’ compound before he can break down even further for everyone to see. He ignores the concerned glances and hushed whispers of the other defenders as he enters the building, heading directly for his bedroom.

He shuts the door behind him, slumping against the wood and sliding down to the ground. The picture of him and Jongdae on the nightstand is what finally breaks him, knees drawn up as he puts his head into his still-gloved hands and cries.

\---

When the traitor Adeli commander Minseok had invaded Starr with the Slashe fleet, the unsuspecting defenders had fallen into disarray in mere minutes. Just as Minseok was bringing down a fist of purple energy onto the fallen Baekhyun, Jongdae had burst out of nowhere, throwing Minseok away from him in a flash of blue light before running up to Baekhyun and helping him stand. While taking his hand, Baekhyun had suddenly how fragile Jongdae’s hand felt, and how tiny cracks of blue were outlined on his skin. The parts of his face unobscured by his visor seemed almost translucent. “Jongdae, you’re hurt, don’t push yourself too much.”

“This will be our final fight together,” Jongdae murmured, ignoring him and pulling him into a tight embrace. Baekhyun stood frozen. “Minseok will recover soon.”

“Our final -”

“Shh.” He hugged Baekhyun tighter as his body began to glow blue. “Let me become your weapon one last time.”

Minseok rushed towards them in a blaze of purple, his energy flowing behind him as a cape. Jongdae dissolved into blue light before not morphing into the swords he usually became, but instead surrounding Baekhyun’s arms in fiery blue, tipped with claws of Jongdae’s energy. He dodged Minseok’s charge and forced apart the huge hands of purple that threatened to crush him, blinking directly in front of him and flinging him to the ground.

Even with their power combined, they were almost overwhelmed, Jongdae forced to separate from a dazed Baekhyun to block a blow aimed at his head. Minseok’s eyes lit up, seizing Jongdae and flying up into an already-evacuated office building, smashing him through the window and shoving him against the wall by his throat. Baekhyun, shaking his head to clear the dizziness, followed as quickly as he could, blinking his way up the side.

“Why would you waste your life to help these weaklings?” Minseok had hissed, smirking as Jongdae struggled and jerked against the hands squeezing at his windpipe, desperately trying to free himself. Baekhyun, in a sudden fit of rage, dashed forward, taking Minseok by surprise as he knocked him off Jongdae and put him in a headlock. “Jongdae, hurry!” he shouted, his hold on Minseok rapidly weakening.

Gasping for breath, Jongdae stumbled to his feet and summoned a dagger, slicing it down through Minseok’s energy cape. The commander fell to his knees, eyes wide, as his energy, flickering ominously, pooled behind him.

“We need to leave,” Jongdae wheezed, staggering towards Baekhyun. “His energy, it’s going to -”

Baekhyun grabbed his arm and blinked them away just as the building exploded behind them, the blast throwing them onto the ground. They lay there for a few minutes, chests heaving and eyes half-closed.

A Starr defender ran past, frantic. “There’s a hole in the atmospheric shield!” she cried. “More Slashe ships are coming. We need to make a last stand!”

But the defenders were exhausted, most of them weakened by the Slashe soldiers’ poison. Jongdae met Baekhyun’s eyes, and he stood up suddenly. Baekhyun followed more slowly, wincing.

Jongdae limped over to him, taking off his visor and pressing it into his hand. “This is for you.” Baekhyun stared at it, uncomprehending. “After Adeli, Starr’s been my second home.” Jongdae’s voice grew distant as he turned away. “I need to show my thanks somehow.”

“Jongdae,” Baekhyun started, but pain raced through him and he dropped to his hands and knees with a groan, the poison still in his system. Jongdae ignored him. “Baekhyun, you might want to cover your eyes.”

“Jongdae, wait, don’t - !”

A blaze of light burst from the center of Jongdae’s chest, energy pouring from his body as he roared in exertion. Baekhyun squeezed his eyes shut, crying for Jongdae to stop, but his pleas went unheard.

The glow finally faded to reveal Jongdae’s translucent body, his features clearly cast with an undercurrent of blue light. Sadly, he looked back at Baekhyun. “Baekhyun?”

“Jongdae, we can think of something else,” Baekhyun begged, forcing himself up on one knee, holding Jongdae’s visor in one hand and reaching for Jongdae with the other. “Please -”

“Meeting you was the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” Jongdae smiled warmly, though a tear shimmered on his cheek. “Thank you.”

He was gone before Baekhyun could respond, a streak of blue heading towards the hole in the atmospheric shield. Baekhyun felt dread rising in his stomach as he slumped, hollow.

It seemed both an eternity and no time at all when the world shook with an explosion of blue, everything too bright for a moment before the light disappeared, leaving only falling blue sparkles behind. The Slashe ships were nowhere to be seen, and the hiding citizens rushed out, blinking in wonder.

Baekhyun clenched the visor in his hands, tears dripping onto the glass, shoulders shaking with sobs as he threw his head back and screamed his loss to the sky.

\---

That night, Baekhyun goes up to the roof of the compound. He used to love sitting up there with Jongdae, legs dangling over the side, arguing over cats and dogs and blasters and swords and whether or not Kyungsoo would ever admit to his crush on Chanyeol. Jongdae, ever the romantic, had insisted that he would. Baekhyun had laughed until Jongdae threatened to push him off the building.

When the governor of Starr had commissioned the statue of Jongdae after his death, Baekhyun and Jongin - Jongdae’s only surviving childhood friend from Adeli, who visited from time to time - had made their own memorial, carving his name onto a slab of rock and laying white flowers on it every month. “According to Adelian legend, fallen warriors are reborn as stars, to forever watch over their people,” he’d said, gazing up at the night sky with a fond smile on his face. “I wonder which one is Jongdae. It was always his dream to be a soldier. And he grew up to be one of the best _ zhanshen _ Adeli had ever seen.”

Jongdae, cat lover, watermelon fanatic, grocery buyer, best friend, and _ zhanshen _ \- warrior god - of Adeli. So many things, reduced to just a star. Something so small for someone so full and beautiful. But Baekhyun, too fragile for resentment at the time, had swallowed his grief and nodded jerkily, staring at the ground.

Still, as time passed, he found himself coming up to the roof more and more, searching the sky for Jongdae.

Tonight, he fixes his eyes on a lone star, separate from the others. It’s not particularly bright, but Baekhyun finds it easy to focus on, blocking out the chirp of crickets and occasional mutters from defenders patrolling the edges of the compound.

“Hi, Jongdae,” he murmurs. “How have you been doing?” His hands interlock and fidget. “I miss you. There are so many things I didn’t get a chance to talk to you about.

“I’d give anything to have you back, honestly. Fuck the planet. Maybe you should’ve just let the Slashe come, and we could’ve run away together, bring along Kyungsoo and Chanyeol if you wanted. Start a new life.

“But you would’ve never agreed, huh, Jongdae. You and your self-righteous honor bullshit.” Baekhyun laughs, strained. “I miss you so much, Jongdae. I miss you. Come back to me? Please?”

“Hey, Baekhyun!” a defender shouts from below. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah,” he chokes out. His voice is tight, and he kind of feels like he’s going to cry again, but he’s all out of tears. “I’m fine. Totally fine.”

\---

Behind him, a spirit floats, invisible. His face is twisted with sadness as he watches Baekhyun curl in on himself, still staring at the sky. Floating forward, he sits down and leans his ghostly head against Baekhyun’s shoulder.

“Baekhyun,” Jongdae whispers. “I’m home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> plot summary:
> 
> \- jd tries to kill bbh but fails because jd's too nice and bbh knows he's a good person, they become friends  
\- their friendship grows, they're happy together  
\- minseok invades, jongdae and baekhyun beat him together, jongdae then gives his visor to baekhyun and sacrifices himself to save the planet  
\- a year later baekhyun is still angry/sad over jongdae's death, he has that nightmare and views the hologram  
\- baekhyun goes to jongdae's statue and sits there for a while, yells at junmyeon, then goes back to the compound  
\- baekhyun goes up to the roof of the compound, jongdae's spirit is introduced
> 
> also, a little clarification on Adelians - they're made almost entirely of energy, and they burn that energy to stay alive, fly, fight, etc. They can replenish energy, but over time, they ultimately end up using up all of it and die. Minseok died when he was separated from his energy cape, his main energy source. Jongdae had been overusing his for years, on missions for Dust and for protecting Starr, and used everything he had left when he blew himself up to destroy the Slashe fleet. The reason his spirit still exists will come later :D
> 
> btw, should I tag this major character death?? since jongdae is already dead when the fic starts and it's a temporary death???
> 
> thanks so much for reading! feedback is appreciated!


	2. Chapter 2

Jongdae’s spirit had survived the blast, thrown into space after his body was destroyed. It was only by chance that surviving elders of Adeli had found it before it had burnt itself out - a true death - and were kind enough to transfer parts of their own energy into his dormant spirit. The process, they’d told him, was slow and deliberate. Too much energy given and the elders wouldn’t be able to recover and replenish; too little and his spirit would’ve fizzled out.

Nevertheless, a year later, he’d awoken as a ghost that only Adelians could sense. Once he was strong enough to walk around by himself, he’d gotten onto his knees, bowed low, and thanked them profusely, but they just waved him off, smiling. “You’ve spent your entire life dedicated to Adeli, both as a soldier and as _ zhanshen_. This was the least we could do to repay you.”

One of the elders’ grandchildren, Junmyeon, had been assigned as his guide and protector, until the elders managed to find an energy source powerful enough to give Jongdae back his body. He was good company (though he spent half his time running after Jongdae and shouting for him to be careful), but he wasn’t Baekhyun. He missed Baekhyun so much.

Jongdae would always bring Baekhyun up when talking to Junmyeon. “We were enemies when we first met, you know,” or “Fighting with him feels like dancing, we’re so in sync,” or “He and his friends hate buying groceries, so I’m forced to go every single time.”

One day, Jongdae decides to rant to him about Baekhyun’s love of dogs. “There was this stray with a bad scratch on its side just sitting at the side of the road, and Baekhyun decided to take him home. But, you know, he’s _ allergic _ . So, while treating the scratch at the infirmary, he kept sneezing on me and complaining about his stuffy nose. I told him to just drop it off at the vet, but instead he just forced me to go buy him a face mask and kept insisting that it wasn’t the dog he was allergic to, it was _ me _.” Jongdae scoffed, fiddling with a flower in his hands. “He’s pretty annoying.”

Junmyeon listens with a soft smile on his face. “You must really love him, huh.”

“Love h- sorry, what?” Jongdae sputters. “No, wait, have you been you thinking that we were in a relationship?”

“Weren’t you?”

“No!” Jongdae shakes his head violently. “Why would you think that?”

Junmyeon frowns at him, confused. “You two share a bed.”

“That’s because Baekhyun gets cold and I’m an easy source of heat, okay, the compound really needs to invest in better AC -”

“You spared Baekhyun’s life knowing that you would’ve been freed of your Dust debt if you killed him.”

“He spared my life first, twice, actually, I couldn’t just let him _ die _ -”

“When Jongin - your best friend since you were little - located you on Starr, he asked you to leave with him and join him in his travels and you turned him down for Baekhyun.”

“Starr needed my help! And Baekhyun was a better fighting partner anyway.”

“I’m telling Jongin you said that.”

“Fuck, no, wait -”

“Jongdae.” Junmyeon levels a flat stare at him. “You literally told me that right before you died, all you could think about was Baekhyun.”

“He’s my _ best friend _ -”

“Your _ last words _ were that meeting Baekhyun had been the best thing that had ever happened to you.”

“What else was I supposed to say?”

“So you didn’t mean it?”

“No, of course not!” Jongdae huffs, plucking a blade of grass and tearing it up. “I did, but that doesn’t really mean anything.”

Junmyeon snorts judgmentally. “Of course it doesn’t. Oh, by the way, it’s almost sundown. We should start heading back. I have a surprise for you.”

They stand up, brushing off purple dirt from their hands and legs. Junmyeon orders Jongdae to close his eyes (“If you lead me into a forest and strand me there again I swear I’ll possess you or something”), grabs his ghostly wrist, and begins tugging him along. A few minutes later, they stop in what seemed like a clearing, based on Jongdae’s brief peeks. “Any minute now,” Junmyeon mutters, slapping a hand over Jongdae’s eyes.

The roar of an engine above them makes Jongdae flinch. “Junmyeon, what was that?” he asks sharply. But his words are drowned out by an earth-shattering thud, and the hand over his eyes doesn’t move. “Junmyeon?”

A hiss of air, then a sharp inhale and uneven footsteps. “... Jongdae?”

Junmyeon takes his hand away, a huge grin on his face and he looks between the two. “In the flesh. Or, well, not yet, he’s still just a spirit, so -”

He gets pushed aside as Jongin rushes forward, crushing Jongdae in a tight hug and burying his face into his shoulder. “Fuck you,” he chokes, and Jongdae can feel his tears wetting his shirt. He doesn’t mind, though, speechless and heart bursting with joy, just hugging back as best as he can through a face full of dark red hair.

Then, he’s suddenly pushed away, and he stumbles back, taken aback. “What the _ fuck _ is wrong with you, Jongdae!” Jongin shouts, wiping at his eyes. He grabs Jongdae by the shoulders and shakes him. “I thought you were dead! You were the only person I had left and you just went and blew yourself up like that?” Jongin shoves him again, and he staggers, throwing out an arm for balance. “You left without a proper fucking goodbye, how could -”

“Jongin, that’s enough!” Junmyeon snaps. Jongdae blinks rapidly, the world spinning around him, and he thinks that Junmyeon is saying something but it’s muddled, everything’s muddled, and somehow he finds himself shuddering uncontrollably in the grass. A sharp ice-cold rushes through him, his vision flashing blue and white, and there’s voices above him but it’s as if he’s underwater, sounds muffled and distorted. A horrible emptiness crushes at his chest, and it feels like he’s been holding his breath for hours but he’s a spirit, he doesn’t need to breathe, what’s happening, what’s happening, what’s -

Everything clears and he’s curled in the fetal position, hands clenched in the shirt fabric over his heart. Jongin and Junmyeon are hovering over him, the former looking like he’s five seconds away from crying again. Jongdae groans, pushing himself up. “What the fuck just happened.”

Junmyeon looks torn between worry and anger, eyebrows pinched, before his expression drops into one of guilt. “Jongdae, there’s something you should know.”

\---

“_What do you mean, he might only have three weeks left? _”

“Jongin, please, calm down,” Junmyeon pleads. “The elders have been searching for a sufficient energy source for a while now, and they think they’ve found one, but they’re not sure. If they’re wrong, then…“

“Jongdae’s spirit will burn itself out and we’ll be back where we started.” Jongin rakes his hands through his hair. “Why did you even bring me here to meet him if you knew he was going to die a few days later?”

“I thought I would let you see him one last time,” Junmyeon says quietly. “And though it might not be guaranteed, the elders think that the energy source should be strong enough.”

“Should be. _ Should be_. You’re going to put Jongdae’s life in the hands of chance?”

“What else can we do?” There are tears in Junmyeon’s eyes too, now. “You think I don’t care just as much as you do? We’re trying the best we can!”

“Guys, stop,” Jongdae says. He forces a broken smile. “I’ve already been dead before. It’s not that much of a difference.”

But there was a difference. When he’d sacrificed himself for Starr, it had been in the heat of war. There was no room for doubt, no time to rethink his decision or say his goodbyes. He hadn’t been scared, then, knowing he was doing what he had to do. Now, he’s terrified. He doesn’t know when the emptiness he’d felt before will consume him. There are so many things he’d looked forward to for when he got his body back - he would eat _ so much _ watermelon, maybe get a cat, travel a bit with Jongin, sharpen his fighting skills, go back to Starr and finally reunite with Baekhyun - _ Baekhyun_.

“I need to see Baekhyun,” he gasps. “I need to see him.” He turns to Jongin, clasps his hand frantically. “You can take me there, right? We can be back before the three weeks are up.”

“No!” they both shout in unison. Junmyeon paces back and forth. “Away from the elders, your energy will burn faster than it already is. Not to mention Starr is far away - what if the ship malfunctions? It’ll take a week just to get there and back - you don’t have the time for repairs. You have no plans, no money. Baekhyun can’t even sense you!”

“And I’ve received a distress call from another planet,” Jongin adds, jaw clenched, gently extricating his hand from Jongdae’s. “I’ve already taken enough of a detour by coming here. Even if I did take you, I couldn’t stay. You’d have no protection and no way back.”

Jongdae can feel hopelessness clawing at his chest. “I can’t - I can’t - I need to see him,” he repeats, falling to his knees. “Please. I can’t - I can’t go without seeing him one more time.”

Jongin’s face is stiff, his soldier’s discipline warring with the impact of too many emotions over too short a time, joy and sadness and anger and terror and regret just barely buried beneath stone. Junmyeon is less controlled, trembling and hurt, hands outstretched. “Jongdae, get up, stop…”

“Please,” Jongdae begs, head down. “Let me go.”

Everything is silent for a few moments. Then, Junmyeon slumps with defeat. “There might be a way.”

Jongdae holds his breath.

“I am a child of the elders. If I go with you, I might be able to stabilize your energy long enough for you to make it back safely.” His voice is heavy. “This has never been tried before, though. I don’t have the elders’ experience or power. _ If _ this works, I can give you a week on Starr at most.”

Jongdae looks towards Jongin.

Jongin sighs, tension bleeding out of his body. “I’ll drop you off and then ask a favor of a friend to cover for me at that planet. I should be able to get away for a few days to pick you up. Just give me an exact day and don’t be late.” He cracks a crooked smile and pulls Jongdae into a hug. “I hope this is worth it. And you owe me.”

Now Jongdae is the one crying on his shoulder as Junmyeon rubs at his back comfortingly. “Thank you,” he gasps. “Thank you so much.”

\---

Junmyeon leaves an explanation at the elders’ doorstep, and they arrive at Starr three days later, a few hours out from Baekhyun’s compound. Jongin presses a few hundred Starr credits into Junmyeon’s hand and hugs Jongdae tightly, making him promise to stay safe. “I’ll meet you back here in a week, okay? One week, no more!” Jongdae nods, wishes him luck in defending his planet, and they watch as Jongin’s ship disappears into the sky before flagging down a taxi.

They arrive at the city center at around sunset, looking for a cheap hotel to spend the night. It’s pouring, and though Jongdae might be invulnerable to rain, Junmyeon is soaked and grumbling. The two seek shelter under a bus stop, Jongdae patting Junmyeon’s shoulder sympathetically.

“Oh, hey, look, that’s me,” Jongdae says, pointing at the dripping stone statue in front of him. “They did a pretty good job.”

“You literally blew yourself up for their planet. They’d better have done a good job,” Junmyeon mutters, wrapping his arms around himself. “I swear, this rain is a sign. We’re going to get murdered by bats, I’m calling it. Let’s just contact Jongin and go home.”

Jongdae ignores him, stepping back out into the rain and circling around the statue. He used to love walking to the city center with Baekhyun, getting coffee and sitting at the benches and just talking. Now that he’s been immortalized here, though, he doesn’t think he’ll be able to visit as often. It’s strange, looking at a statue of himself, and - _ wait_.

There’s a familiar figure slumped in a chair, and it’s raining hard so Jongdae can barely see but that’s Baekhyun’s vest, Baekhyun’s gloves, that’s _ Baekhyun._

“Junmyeon,” Jongdae breathes, forgetting to raise his voice over the sound of the rain. He tries again, but taking even a little bit of his attention away from Baekhyun seems impossible. “Junmyeon!”

Junmyeon is there almost instantly, almost slipping into a puddle. “Jongdae? Are you okay?” he whispers. “Sorry I’m being so quiet, I don’t think I should talk to you or use your name loudly in public, I’ll get reported for trying to commune with the dead or something.”

Jongdae completely ignores him, staring. “That’s him,” he murmurs, and he should be overjoyed but why does Baekhyun look so broken? “That’s Baekhyun.”

“What?”

“The guy sitting on the bench over there. He’s Baekhyun. Can you - can you tell him I’m here?” Jongdae isn’t sure if he’s ready for this, honestly, but he’s on a time limit, and whatever Baekhyun’s going through right now, he wants to _ help_.

But nothing goes as planned, and his heart shatters when Baekhyun laughs at Junmyeon, shooting to his feet with eyes wild, before suddenly falling silent and blinking away. Instinctively, Jongdae knows where Baekhyun is going, and he heads towards the compound, thoughts a mess and hurt pounding through him. Junmyeon runs behind him, shouts to slow down and not overexert himself, but he pushes away the emptiness threatening to overwhelm him again, a need to get back to Baekhyun forcing him forward.

He tells Junmyeon to stay near the fringe of the woods - passing through might trigger alarms - floats up to the roof of compound, and waits for Baekhyun to emerge from the trapdoor.

Some time later - it could’ve been minutes or hours, Jongdae has no idea - Baekhyun stumbles onto the roof and sits at the edge, talking to the stars, talking to _ him _ . Jongdae listens, hollow, and he’s glad that he’s been remembered but _ not like this_. He sits beside Baekhyun when he’s done, leans his head into his shoulder like he used to do. He’s missed this so much.

“Baekhyun, I’m home,” he says, trying to pour all his love, joy, comfort into those three simple words while filtering out his sorrow and fear. Some of it must’ve bled through, though, because Baekhyun looks sharply at him, directly into his eyes, and Jongdae feels a flash of hope because maybe he’s sensed him, somehow. But Baekhyun just tears his gaze away, hands clenching into fists at his sides, and blinks away.

The emptiness hits him at full force, and without Baekhyun to lean on, he tips to the side, barely managing to catch himself with his hands before his strength leaves him and he falls to the ground. _ Not again, please, not again_. He hears shouting beneath him, but the world fades into hazy blue and white and there’s nothing but a numbing pain.

_ Everything is so cold_…

\---

“_You_,” Baekhyun hisses, stepping forward and drawing his sword. “What do you want, Junmyeon?”

“Let me through!” Junmyeon cries frantically, barely a few meters inside compound territory and pushing at Chanyeol and Kyungsoo, restraining him. He sees Baekhyun and his eyes turn pleading. “Baekhyun, please, you have to believe me, it’s Jongdae, he’s -”

“Take him away,” Baekhyun interrupts, tone icy. “Lock him up until you figure out why he tried to break in.”

Chanyeol, keeping a gentle but firm grip on Junmyeon’s arms, frowns. “He hasn’t really tried to break in. Maybe we should give him a chance to explain.”

“For once in your fucking life, just listen to me, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun snaps. “I know him. _ Lock him up_.”

“He doesn’t fucking _ know _ me -” Junmyeon starts furiously, at the same time Kyungsoo shoots Baekhyun an angry glare, but Baekhyun’s already blinked away.

_ Who the fuck is that guy? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading! feedback is appreciated! :D


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> akfkgkdfkg im back kek
> 
> sorry for the two-month-late update rip school rlly sucked away all my time and motivation aaaaaaa
> 
> hopefully I will be able to write more! enjoy!

Though he isn’t on duty today, Baekhyun jolts awake hours before he usually wakes on his break days, a sinking feeling in his stomach. Shaking away his troubled dreams, he groans and drops his face into his hands as he remembers his standoffish attitude last night, and makes a note to himself to catch Chanyeol and Kyungsoo at breakfast and apologize.

Still, the strange sense of guilt doesn’t go away, Junmyeon’s panicked face floating at the front of his mind. _ What if he was telling the truth? _ He clenches his eyes shut, trying to push back what he knows are impossible fantasies. _ He might have a connection to Jongdae. What if Jongdae’s still alive? What if - _

Baekhyun growls and forces himself out of bed, determinedly going through his morning routine. Believing Junmyeon will lead to nothing but pain, he tells himself, furiously scrubbing at his hair under the shower. What kind of defender would he be if he allowed himself to be so easily manipulated?

He throws on a hoodie and sweatpants and heads down to the dining hall. Sitting at their table are Chanyeol and Kyungsoo in their respective red and green uniforms, heads close together as they talk quietly, food mostly ignored in front of them. He approaches them hesitantly, runs a hand through his hair and clears his throat. The two look at him expectantly.

“Sorry about last night,” he says, fiddling with the strings of his hoodie. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you two and acted as if you guys were below me or something. It won’t happen again.”

They stare, and then Chanyeol turns away with a sniff. “Sure.”

Baekhyun’s eyes widen - did he really mess up that badly? - but then Chanyeol is giggling and Kyungsoo is rolling his eyes. “Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo warns, pinching his shoulder threateningly.

“Just kidding, I was just kidding,” he yelps, batting at Kyungsoo’s hand. “Baekhyun knows we love him, right?” He smiles winningly at Baekhyun, who whacks him and sits down, stealing his apple. “Hey!”

Baekhyun takes a bite, gathering his courage. “So, uh,” he mumbles, “That guy last night.”

“Right.” Kyungsoo turns concerned eyes onto Baekhyun, who avoids them determinedly. “Who is he and why do you know him? We legally can’t keep him any longer without giving him a chance to explain himself.” He pauses, before asking carefully, “And was I hearing things, or did he say something about -”

“Yeah, he did,” Baekhyun says quickly. “I was on patrol at the city center, and he ran up to me trying to convince me Jongdae was alive.” _ I was sitting in the rain after my shift was over, and he just appears out of nowhere, soaked, telling me my wildest dreams have come true. And I know by now to lose myself to fantasies. _ “He was clearly just delusional, but I got upset.” _ I was close to hysterical. _ “So when I saw him last night, I freaked out and acted on impulse. I’ll go apologize to him and escort him out in an hour or so. I’ll provide him with recompensation, don’t worry.”

“I still think you should let him explain himself.” Chanyeol frowns, fiddles with his sleeves. “He might be delusional, but who knows.”

“Or he might have ulterior motives,” Kyungsoo adds. “Either way, talking to him can’t hurt.”

_ It does hurt, though. _

Still, Baekhyun can’t just brush them off like he did before. “I’ll give him a chance,” he promises with a forced smile. He stands up, waves goodbye, and heads for the doors.

\---

_ He looks awful. _

Baekhyun watches Junmyeon’s hands clench and unclench in the pristine white sheets of the containment room. He sits at the edge of the bed, tense and wound-up. Bags rest underneath glazed green eyes, and his hair is matted and dirty, even though the room comes with a shower.

“He wasn’t mistreated in any way, correct?” Baekhyun asks the monitoring officer, who shakes her head. “Of course not. Chanyeol and Kyungsoo brought him down and he’s been alone since then. But we don’t think he slept at all. The guards could hear him pacing around.”

“Alright, take me in.”

The officer leads Baekhyun to Junmyeon’s room, knocks, and unlocks the door. Junmyeon straightens, back rigid, when Baekhyun steps in and shuts the door behind him with a click.

He clears his throat. “I overreacted last night. My apologies. You’ll be provided with -”

“I don’t care about your apologies,” Junmyeon mutters, cutting him off.

Baekhyun bristles, but forces himself to continue. “Still, you’ll be provided with recompensation, after you explain your actions yesterday. Do you have any preferences, or will credits do?”

Junmyeon stiffens. “Anything I want?”

“Anything within our recompensation credit limit, yes.”

“Take me to the roof of the compound,” Junmyeon says sharply. “Take me to the roof and I’ll give you your explanation.”

“Explain, first.” Baekhyun narrows his eyes.

“Are you fucking -” Junmyeon practically launches himself off the bed towards Baekhyun, shoving him against the door. Immediately, Baekhyun has a knife held against his throat, but he doesn’t seem to care.

“Listen to me,” Junmyeon hisses. “Jongdae is alive.”

Baekhyun opens his mouth to speak, but Junmyeon doesn’t let him. “Jongdae is _ alive. _ The Adelian elders - my grandparents - found and preserved his spirit. He traveled all the way from our planet to Starr just to see you, but he doesn’t have enough energy to manifest to non-Adelians. He was with you on the roof last night and collapsed when you left. If you don’t take me up there _ right now _ , I don’t know if he’s going to survive, so _ please_, just let me through!”

Stunned, Baekhyun lets the knife drop, and Junmyeon is pushing past him and running for the stairwell, not bothering with the elevator. The guards shout and raise their weapons, but Baekhyun waves them down, blinking after Junmyeon. Reaching the ground floor and exiting the building, Junmyeon leaps into the sky with a burst of lime-green energy, landing smoothly on the roof a few stories above them. Baekhyun follows, blinking up the floors of the compound until he’s standing at the top. His mind reels, and he’s not sure what he should believe - Junmyeon does seem to be Adelian, he’s seen Jongdae make that jump so many times before the exact same way, but almost all the Adelians had been destroyed along with their planet, where did Junmyeon even come from - and there’s no way Jongdae had been right next to him last night, he would’ve sensed it or something - and if he is really still alive as a spirit, he _ can’t _ die again, Baekhyun couldn’t live knowing that his own stubbornness had taken away Jongdae’s chance to come back, he’s killed Jongdae, he’s _ killed Jongdae - _

Baekhyun is pulled out of his swirling thoughts when Junmyeon gasps and stumbles forward, falling to his knees a few feet away from the edge.

“What,” he demands, raising his voice. “What’s happening?”

Junmyeon doesn’t answer, leaning over empty air and closing his eyes. He holds his hands about a foot off the ground, his shoulders stiff as his palms begin to glow green. Jaw clenched, he begins to mutter incomprehensible words underneath his breath.

A flash of light, a cry, and Junmyeon slumps, supporting himself with one hand as he pants. Baekhyun draws closer, hesitantly offering Junmyeon a hand. “What did you do?”

He’s ignored again as Junmyeon lets out a relieved sob, throwing him forward and hugging the space in front of him. “You’re a fucking idiot, you know,” he sniffles. “Now tell your dumb boyfriend that you’re alive so he won’t throw me in jail again.”

Baekhyun gapes, unsure whether Junmyeon’s hallucinating or pulling some sort of huge prank on him.

“You can possess machines?” Junmyeon snaps, still addressing the space in front of him. “Why didn’t you just do that at the park? You _ forgot _? Are you kidding me?”

He huffs and turns to Baekhyun. “Do you have a tablet with you right now? Maybe a digital watch?”

Baekhyun hesitantly holds up his left wrist. The screen crackles, flickers a couple of times, and a word starts to slowly crawls across the screen.

_ TC9527_.

Baekhyun _ feels _ the world freeze around him. The chirping of birds and rustling of leaves drop away abruptly as his ears begin to ring. His vision tunnels until all he can see are those six characters, a striking blue in a haze of grey. “Jongdae,” he breathes, trembling fingers reaching towards the watch screen. “Jongdae?”

_ “Planet Adeli, admiral, number TC9527, Jongdae, ready for command. I will fight with glory to defend Starr!” _

Then the words begin to fade and he’s snapped back into reality. “No, don’t go,” he gasps, falling to his knees and scrabbling at the watch, as if he can claw Jongdae back to him. “Please don’t go.”

The characters immediately pulse brighter in response, and Baekhyun’s voice catches in his throat. Junmyeon watches from the side, eyes tired and sad. “Jongdae, you need to save your energy,” he says quietly.

The characters stubbornly stay bright.

Junmyeon rubs at his temples. “Jongdae, I did not just transfer you that much energy for you to waste it like this,” he snaps. “Rest. I’ll tell him the rest.”

At the mention of Junmyeon’s energy, the characters disappear. Baekhyun remains staring at the watch, his entire body stiff and shaking. He can’t think straight. Does he really dare to believe Jongdae is alive? He’s struggled through a year of grieving, of not being able to move on, of trying to force himself to accept something he wants to push away and avoid forever, yet now, there’s an inkling of hope? It could all be a cruel joke - someone hacked his watch, Junmyeon’s really some actor who thought it’d be funny to play a prank on him - and if Baekhyun believes him only for his hope to be shattered, he doesn’t know how he’d piece himself back together. He’d _ seen _ the explosion of blue in the sky when Jongdae had died. There’s no way he could’ve survived that. Jongdae’s _ dead_.

But it’s Jongdae, and Baekhyun, even if the chances are infinitesimal, will never give up on him.

“I took you to the roof,” he manages to choke out, blinking back tears and turning to face Junmyeon. “Now give me an explanation.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! feedback is appreciated!


End file.
